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THE TRAGEDY OF FLIGHT MH-370       

08/03/2014 —  A scheduled international passenger flight that disappeared on Saturday, 8 March 2014, while flying from Kuala Lumpur International Airport, Malaysia to Beijing Capital International Airport, People’s Republic of China. Air traffic control received the aircraft's last message at 01:20 MYT (17:20 UTC, 7 March) when it was over the South China Sea, less than an hour after takeoff.  

It was last plotted by military radar at 02:15 over the Andaman Sea, 320 kilometres (200 mi) northwest of Penang state in northwestern Malaysia.  At 07:24, Malaysia Airlines (MAS) reported the flight missing.  The aircraft, a Boeing 777-200ER, was carrying 12 Malaysian crew members and 227 passengers from 15 nations.

A multinational search effort, which became the largest and most expensive in history, began in the Gulf of Thailand and the South China Sea, where the flight’s signal was lost on secondary surveillance radar, and was soon extended to the Strait of Malacca and Andaman Sea.  

The focus of the search shifted to the southern part of the Indian Ocean, west of Australia. An analysis of possible flight paths was conducted, identifying a 23,000 sq. mi search area, approximately 1,200 mi. west of Perth, Western Australia.  The underwater search of this area began on 5 October 2014 and will last up to 12 months at a cost of  $60 million (approximately US$56 million or €41 million).

I DISAGREED WITH THIS ASSUMPTION FROM THE BEGINNING
There has been no confirmation of any flight debris, and no crash site has been found, resulting in many unofficial theories about its disappearance. Analysis of these communications by multiple agencies has concluded that the flight ended in the southern Indian Ocean.  On 24 March, the Malaysian government, noting that the final location determined by the satellite communication was far from any possible landing sites, concluded that,  “ Flight MH370 ended in the southern Indian Ocean.” 

I disagreed:  I said this almost three years ago…i have stated that on this site, at less than 50 days after the jet went missing, and still believe I am right they are looking in the wrong place.

SYDNEY (AP) — A team of international investigators hunting for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 said Tuesday it has concluded the plane is unlikely to be found in a stretch of the Indian Ocean search crews have been combing for two years, and may instead have crashed in an area farther to the North.

The latest analysis of the plane's whereabouts comes in a report from the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, which is leading the search for the aircraft.  The report is the result of a November meeting of international and Australian experts who re-examined all the data used to narrow down the search area for the plane, which vanished during a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014, with 239 people on board.

In the years since the plane disappeared, experts have analyzed a series of exchanges between the aircraft and a satellite to estimate a probable crash site along what's known as the seventh arc — a vast arc of ocean that runs through the southern hemisphere. A deep sea search of a 120,000-square kilometer (46,000-square mile) stretch of water along the seventh arc has so far come up empty.

DISCLAIMER -  

Many of the things we see and hear titled under the banner of bad news sometimes bogles my mind, at least when things just don't add up.  Because when something bad happens there is usually a series or events leading up to the catastrophe that could of, or should have been avoided.  And solving the problems is a question of putting the right parts in the right order… 

Being a Pilot for 30+ years, and being an avid reader of  FAA crash and incident reports,  I learned the phrase “Chain of events and catastrophe are linked words”.   Learning from others mistakes avoids you making them.  And many answers are unanswered or not the way I might see things.  

•  These are my findings after scads of research in an effort to “get to the bottom of things”.

•   I am not a conspiracy advocate looking for an agenda. I have no skin in the game.   

•   All the research I do is double checked, verified and the truth to the best of my ability.  This webpage and additive information has been compiled from a  myriad of sources,  much of which has been published in depth, repeated, repeated again reflecting the tragedy, investigation, and the several changed theories on the loss of MH-370. 

•   When available the authors, reporters, concerned executives, government employees, and soothsayers names have been mentioned, and I apologize if I missed someone.

•   227 passengers, 12 crew and the world deserve to have the truth out and I put this collection together in the flying publics interest.  

•   Wikipedia has the most complete synopsis of the incident compiled but without positive identification of the major portions of the aircraft, nothing is written in stone.

•   My theory, documented,  which I wrote and documented starting at 30 days and completed 60 days after sensing the botched investigation; probes the mishandling and mistrust of the Malaysian government and is as viable as anyone else’s; 

• The loss of the aircraft and lives.
• The failure of global aircraft tracking systems in place.
• The total misguided attempts to locate the aircraft.
• Total incompetence of the Malaysian Government and Aviation Division
• Poor Maintenance on all their aircraft 
• Blamesmanship
• Possible conspiracy involving unsafe cargo handling and possible Cargo being tagged wrong for profit.

LATEST CONSPIRACY THEORIES 5/15/2018 TABLOID THINKING

All but one of the 239 people on the doomed Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 had probably been unconscious — incapacitated by the sudden depressurization of the Boeing 777 — and had no way of knowing they were on an hours-long, meandering path to their deaths.

Along that path, a panel of aviation experts said Sunday, was a brief but telling detour near Penang, Malaysia, the home town of Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah.  On two occasions, whoever was in control of the plane — and was probably the only one awake — tipped the craft to the left.   

The “ experts”  believe Zaharie, the plane’s pilot, was taking a final look.  How about from the Command seat of the 777, which is on the left, if you were blacking out you would lean left and turn left against the autopilot.  

That is the chilling theory that the team of analysts assembled by Australia’s “60 Minutes” have posited about the final hours of MH370.  They suspect that the plane's 2014 disappearance and apparent crash were a suicide by the 53-year-0ld Zaharie — and a premeditated act of mass murder.  Here is how he supposedly did it.

The experts said, they believe that Zaharie depressurized the plane, knocking out anyone aboard who wasn’t wearing an oxygen mask. That would explain the silence from the plane as it veered wildly off course: no mayday from the craft's radio, no final goodbye texts, no attempted emergency calls that failed to connect.

That would also explain how whoever was in control had time to maneuver the plane to its final location.  The secret of what happened in the final moments of the ill-fated flight died with its passengers and pilot.

“The thing that gets discussed the most is that at the point where the pilot turned the transponder off, that he depressurized the airplane, which would disable the passengers,” said Larry Vance, a veteran aircraft investigator from Canada. “He was killing himself. Unfortunately, he was killing everyone else onboard. And he did it deliberately.”

Zaharie’s suspected suicide might explain an oddity about the plane's final flight path: that unexpected turn to the left.  “Captain Zaharie dipped his wing to see Penang, his home town,” Simon Hardy, a Boeing 777 senior pilot and instructor, said on “60 Minutes.”

“If you look very carefully, you can see it’s actually a turn to the left, and then start a long turn to the right. And then he does another left turn. So, I spent a long time thinking about what this could be, what technical reason is there for this, and, after two months, three months thinking about this, I finally got the answer: Someone was looking out the window.”

“It might be a long, emotional goodbye,” Hardy added. “Or a short, emotional goodbye to his home town.”

But the “60 Minutes” experts tried to answer one of the biggest questions surrounding the flight: How could a modern aircraft tracked by radar and satellites simply disappear? Because, they say, Zaharie wanted it to. And the veteran pilot, who had nearly 20,000 hours of flight experience and had built a flight simulator in his home, knew exactly how to do it.

For example, at one point, he flew near the border of Malaysia and Thailand, crisscrossing into the airspace of both, Hardy said. But neither country was likely to see the plane as a threat because it was on the edge of their airspace.

“Both of the controllers aren't bothered about this mysterious aircraft because, oh, it's gone, it's not in our space anymore,” Hardy said. “If you were commissioning me to do this operation and try to make a 777 disappear, I would do the same thing. As far as I’m concerned, it's very accurate flying, and it did the job.”

MY DEPOSITION and ANALYZATION - DISCLAIMER - QUESTIONS

DISCLAIMER:  Three years ago…I claim no formal training in this field, no titles, nor any fancy accredited plaques on my walls.  

1. However I do bring some hands-on experience as a battery manufacturer in business for the past fifty years, able to recognize characteristics and differences of the various chemistries or formulas of batteries especially the dangerous idiosyncrasies of the Lithium family.  I have seen and experienced the dangers of Lithium batteries.
   
   
2. I am also a General Aviation Pilot with ratings sometimes right seat corporate pilot, with several thousand hours, worked on the electronics and mechanical aspects of my own personal airplanes over almost thirty years.  I fixed and flew, survived a few incidents, including onboard fires and never lost an airplane or persons onboard.  I never stopped training and honestly can say I almost replaced my underwear a few times but survived.  I had my excitement, used that training and walked away.
   
   
3. My readership on five of my websites is about investigative reporting at my pace, in the food, religion and the political business.  To me Tabloids are good for wrapping fish, only if they suffered and died from Red Tide.  I have been called a pitbull and several other unpleasant names.  Thus three elements, a knowledge of the batteries, aviation systems, and experience as a bloodhound in another life leads me to believe what I believe.
   
   
4. And I own an advanced simulator with Boeing approved software for the 777 that uses an FMS and probably have 1000 hours in it.  Being an investigative reporter, I made it known I did not care for the explanations of the Malaysian appointed government spokespersons.  Call it instinct, I still have my brains and my thought processes at my age. And
   at the bottom line, someone did something wrong, and it led to a chain of events and concluded when things went horribly bad.  I suspect and submit the following in theory and steps.

STEPS TO DESTRUCTION

1. The trigger possibly was the Lithium Cargo, 500 lbs. of laptop batteries or cells in addition to the mysterious 5000 pounds, of unknown or disclosed electronic assemblies, possibly Lithium being shipped at a lower rate.  Lithium does not take well to shorting, temp changes, or pressure changes. And airlines charge higher rates for dangerous cargo.  It requires specific packing and shipping regulations to the letter.
   
   
2. The possibility exists of someone in collusion with the designation of the 5000 lbs of unknown as components, a lithium battery with two wire tails on it is a component.  Basically : Lithium is an unexploded bomb.  If something triggered a loose package in the Unexplained 5000 pounds of cargo, the whole place might have gone off.
   
   
3. Halon leaking upward from the fire extinguisher in the front cargo bay killed the two man crew.  Halon kills in ten seconds if masks are not on.
   
   
4. Theory:  The aircraft turned to a heading taking it to the nearest land and repair facility, Penang.  Might have been the last action of the crew.  The Halon could have gotten into the passenger cabin after eliminating the two man crew. And the were suffocating.
   
   
5. The FMS brought the aircraft to 12,000 feet and maintained a heading.  It flew till it exhausted its fuel.  If the fire spread to the Instrument Service bay, just aft of the front cargo hold, that explains the shutoff of the com equipment. If the fire didn’t kill some of the instruments, the extreme cold of the Halon or the fire could have.
   
   
6. There was sufficient fuel to take it and I have stood from the beginning on a more northernly course.  Any or most of the instrument controlled by hand commonly turn to the right.  Just call it luck and intuition and hours on the computer, now being the latest guess by the commission.
   
   
7. Again, several points seemed to be ignored.  The simplistic equation applied or known to most aircraft accidents and incidents is that most occurrences are cumulative, signs ignored, missteps adding up, usually to a finale.   The missing plane is the result of either  a combination of bad judgements, and/or illegal play, foul play, or stupid assumptions, but most likely some rule was broken.
   
   POSSIBLE CRIMINALITY
8. I’m betting against pilot error, both were experienced and the alien abduction theory does not work for me, the smoking gun is the cargo manifest and it’s declarations is the answer.   If the plane is found and the pallet containing almost 5000 ponds of unknown electronic components was actually more unstable Lithium batteries at a cheaper tariff rate, someone knew this.  And the shipment was not packed correctly or legally.  That would be a coverup by the Malaysian Government.
   
   
9. The criminal here could have been the shipper trying to hide more Lithium for a lower rate, the inspector, the ramp senior agent, someone who took a bribe, someone higher up in the Malaysian government involved.  If anything that would be a conspiracy theory but if true, with a very bad ending.
   
   
10. Too much of a coverup since the last two Boeing freighters that went down and one that lit off on the ramp were traced and from Lithium battery generated fires.  
    
    
11. Finding the flaperon NW of Australia indicates to me the search areas have been too far south in the indian ocean.  My search area would have been 1000 to 1600 miles WNW of Penang, the Malaysian support facility for their aircraft and radar footprint of the planes passing.  

FINALLY DECLARED LOST  —  LOTS OF THEORIES, CONSPIRACIES
In the first weeks of the disappearance of Flight MH-370, I stood the course.  As a pilot I know the first information about disasters is not always accurate and you have to let the authorities play out their role in the investigation to find the truth.

Something stood out to me that may have been the game changer.   I made a few statements about the disappearance of MH370 as soon as I had learned about the cargo manifest.  I had mentioned it to friends, relatives, fellow pilots, strangers and a few conspiratorialists who were claiming the usual:  

•  Human error   •  Terrorists    •  Deranged pilots    •  Alien  lifeforms and abductions   •  Malaysia’s enemies   
•  The Communists   •  Al Qaeda,  ISIS,   •  Klingon tractor beams from a Bird of Prey   •  Recently fired employees.  

COVERUP THEORY - GENERAL QUARTERS - THOUGHTS — QUESTIONS

COMMUNICATION:  The countries close to the Malaysia Airlines MH370,  are being accused of a cover-up. The accusation comes from Des Ross, an aviation advisor in South Sudan, claiming recordings that would tell more of the mysterious story of the flight that went missing, but Australia and Malaysia officials are not providing the public with all the information they must have had.  His points

1. There should have been various audio recordings contained in records and hard disks that would detail what transpired during the first four hours that the Malaysia Airlines MH370 plane went missing.  
   
   
2. Des Ross who has 35 years of aviation industry experience is now asking what was on those recordings – and blatantly and accusatorially asking Malaysia and Austria why they have been so protective of the recordings which most likely exist.   He asked, “What needed to be kept secret from the world even when 239 people were lost?” 
   
   
3. He asserts that a recording between Ho Chi Minh City and air traffic controllers in Kuala Lumpur, via a voice-data link, has information about that crucial time during the mysterious plane disappearance that has never been made public. He says that such data is kept for 30 days. 
   
   
4. Additionally, Ross asserts that if there is no recording of communications between the civil air traffic controller at the Kuala Lumpur control center and a military air defense officer, the non-existence of such a recording would result in an act of criminal negligence. 
5. He insists, however, “Nobody can tell us that the recordings do not exist.” He continued by saying that the two nations – Australia and Malaysia – could be accused of covering up vital information which would help the families and independent investigators work out what happened to the aircraft.

SYNOPSIS    07-21-2016 

Experts at the company leading the underwater hunt for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 say they believe the plane may have glided down rather than dived in the final moments, meaning they may have been scouring the wrong patch of ocean for two years.  

Searchers led by engineering group Fugro have been battling rough seas to comb an area of ocean floor the size of Pennsylvania.  But with their mission almost complete, nothing has been found. 

Debris from the missing Boeing 777 has turned up on the shores of Africa, but nothing has been located in the 46,000 square mile section of the southern Indian Ocean that Fugro has been scanning. 

Their mission is expected to end in three months and the entire search effort could be called off after that following a meeting of key countries Malaysia, China and Australia Friday. 

“If it’s not there, it means it's somewhere else," Fugro project director Paul Kennedy told Reuters.  [Brilliant]

While Kennedy does not exclude extreme possibilities that could have made the plane impossible to spot in the search zone, he and his team argue a more likely option is the plane glided down and crashed beyond the area originally marked out by calculations from satellite images. 

MY BASE THEORY SIMPLIFIED

1. A chain reaction due to the huge amount of suspected Lithium igniting off in the front cargo hold was triggered. The cargo hold is forward of the instrument bay hold below the pilots.  
2. The instruments are protected by an exhaust system which sucks air from the instant bay which does not use Halon.   Halon destroys instrumentation, computers etc and explains the loss of transponders. 
3. A lithium fire is more than a fire, it burns with unbelievable speed and temperature and possibly based on the amount caused a chain reaction which went to the Instrument Bay. 
4. Then the fire reached the instrument bay and everything died except the autopilot and course settings which are very redundant on three channels on the 777.
5. FIRE SUPPRESSION -  Without delay, close thrust levers, extend speed brakes, and descend at VMO/MMO. Level off at lowest safe altitude or 10,000 feet, whichever is higher.  If structural integrity is in doubt, limit airspeed and avoid high maneuvering loads.  Plan to land at the nearest suitable airport.   
6. Note: Equipment cooling normal mode is inoperative. After 30 minutes of operation at low altitude and low cabin differential pressure, electronic  equipment and displays may fail.
7. I think the last thing the pilot or co-pilot did was hit the Emergency Descent Button realizing they had a fire and a course change back to dry land they were familiar with and selecting 12,000 feet as enough altitude to make dry land. I think the halon or fumes killed them before they could do anything else.

"THE END-OF-FLIGHT SCENARIOS ARE ABSOLUTELY ENDLESS"

"If it was manned, it could glide for a long way," Kennedy said. "You could glide it for further than our search area is, so I believe the logical conclusion will be well maybe that is the other scenario." 

Fugro's controlled glide hypothesis is also the first time officials have given some support to contested theories that someone was in control during the flight's final moments. 

Published competing theories over whether one, both or no pilots were in control, whether it was hijacked — or whether all aboard perished and the plane was not controlled at all when it hit the water.  

The glide theory is not supported by the investigating agencies: America's Boeing Co, France's Thales SA, U.S. investigator the National Transportation Safety Board, British satellite company Inmarsat PLC, the U.K. Air Accidents Investigation Branch and the Australian Defense Science and Technology Organization. 

Any further search would require a fresh round of funding from the three governments on top of the almost $137 million that has already been spent, making it the most expensive in aviation history.   Deciding the search area in 2014, authorities assumed the plane had no "inputs" during its final descent, meaning there was no pilot or no conscious pilot. They believe it was on auto-pilot and spiraled when it ran out of fuel. 

But Kennedy said a skilled pilot could glide the plane approximately 120 miles from its cruising altitude after running out of fuel. One pilot told Reuters it would be slightly less than that.  For the aircraft to continue gliding after fuel has run out, someone must manually put the aircraft into a glide — nose down with controlled speed. 

Debris from the missing Boeing 777 has turned up on the shores of Africa, but nothing has been located in the 46,000 square mile section of the southern Indian Ocean that Fugro has been scanning. 

Published competing theories over whether one, both or no pilots were in control, whether it was hijacked — or whether all aboard perished and the plane was not controlled at all when it hit the water.  

"If you lose all power, the auto-pilot kicks out. If there is nobody at the controls, the aircraft will plummet down," said a captain with experience flying Boeing 777s. 

Fugro works on a "confidence level" of 95 percent, a statistical measurement used, in Fugro's case, to indicate how certain the plane debris was not in the area they have already combed, a seabed peppered with steep cliffs and underwater volcanoes. 

Authorities used data provided by Inmarsat to locate the likely plunge point through communication between the plane and satellite ground station.  "All survey data collected from the search for missing flight MH370 will be released,” an ATSB spokesman said.  

06-07-2019 aljacobsladder.com